Halloween 2017 - The Nash Family Pilgrims

Happy Thanksgiving Halloween 2017 from the Nash Family Pilgrims!

Honestly, I was feeling super uninspired and unmotivated about making our Halloween costumes this year.  I didn't sew anything last year and still loved the witch costumes we put together, so I was really contemplating just cobbling together costumes again this year or (gasp) even buying them.  

But after weeks and weeks of indecisiveness, I finally just got inspired by the idea of being pilgrims.  I'm not even sure where it came from, but I went to Joann's, grabbed some patterns and bought fabric, knowing that if I did that there would be no turning back.  

And it turns out these are probably my favorite costumes we have ever done!  Although in reality, it's probably a tie between this year and 2013 when we went as WWII icons.  I just love how they turned out and how fun it was to dress as a pilgrim family!  I love the nerdiness of having thought about what colors and fabrics pilgrims might have worn and tried to make costumes that would depict something closer to reality than the cartoonish black costumes you can buy online.  And I really love that both girls were really into it, especially once they realized how twirly their dresses were. 

We took all our photos in Yosemite, which was New England looking as I could think of for our area.  We actually brought the pumpkins and indian corn to Yosemite with us specifically for photos, but Rose found the bible in the nightstand and proclaimed it to be "her favorite book ever" and carried it around the whole time we were there, so it was only appropriate to also use that as a photo prop in this year's photos. 

I even researched the Mayflower families and discovered that one of them - the Allertons - were a husband and wife with two daughters close in age to Clara and Rose.  They had a son too, but they were as close as we could get.  So to be totally specific, we went as Isaac & Mary Allerton and their daughters Remember (Clara) and Mary (Rose).  It turns out we even had a book in our home library about the Allerton children, which has been fun for the girls to read about!  Interestingly, Mary (the youngest daughter) was the last living Mayflower survivor, living to be 85 years old!

I really thought this might be the year that Clara decided she didn't want to do a family theme or begged to be something more mainstream, but she was all for the pilgrim costumes, especially when I told her I would make sure hers had purple on it.  And she out of everybody really was sold on the idea of portraying Remember Allerton, which is what she told EVERYBODY who asked her what she was.  Not just a pilgrim - it was "Remember Allerton, a pilgrim".  Love that girl.

 

I'm hoping that she continues to feel confident and comfortable standing out from the crowd when it seemed like a good 25% of girls her age were dressed in Disney Descendants (whatever those are) costumes this year.  We actually had a conversation about how it's fun and okay to be different from others and that can be a good thing, and she has taken it to heart.  To the point that when I tried to convince her this morning to take an actual stuffed animal with her to school for Pajama and Stuffed Animal Reading Day, she reminded me that it's okay to be different from everybody else and that she really, really wanted to take the fly-fishing fly (with hook removed for safety) that Paul got her this summer in Yellowstone.  Can't argue with that!

We carved our pumpkins the same day we got back from Yellowstone.  The girls had a lot of fun and Clara even managed to carve her Jack-o-Lanterns eyes all by herself with a knife (which was super scary to watch but she was determined).  Then she poked out a cat shape and let Paul finish carving the rest of it for her. 

Also, for the record since I haven't mentioned it on here yet - WE HAVE GRASS IN OUR BACKYARD AGAIN!  Yay!  I'm so happy about this and Paul worked so, so hard to get this done in time for our Halloween party.  There is still a lot to be done (planter beds, flagstone path, entire front yard) but just having grass back there is HUGE and I love it.

Both girls had really fun Halloween parties at school.  Rose's preschool did a little parade and performance for the parents.  Rose loved the "I'm a cat, I'm a cat, and my eyes are all shiny and bright; I jump in the tree when I hear a noise on this happy halloween night" song and had practiced it for weeks beforehand.  I might have a recording of her somewhere on my phone that I really should upload here.  

And the kids had all frosted sugar cookies to give to their parents, which was so cute.  Rose was so pleased and proud carrying those cookies over to share with me and I just wanted to capture that memory in my head forever.  

 

Clara's school had a parade as well, followed by class parties.  I'm room mom again so I had to organize another Halloween party this year.  But it's really not that bad since I already have a witch hat ring toss game, bean bag toss game into a Jack-O-Lantern mouth, and a carboard skeleton that we set out for a relay to grab a bone and run back, tag a teammate, and repeat until the skeleton is assembled.  I also printed out some 1st grade appropriate mad libs and a parent would worked a few kids at a time filling a story out as a group, then while they ate their treats we let their teacher read them to the kids for entertainment, which they loved and found immensely hilarious.  

We also did caramel apples again like last year in Kindergarten, which is always a big hit.  I just use my caramel apple recipe from my food blog with lots of toppings like marshmallows, candy corn, pretzels, raisins, M&Ms and googly eye sprinkles and the kids love it.  

After school got out and piano lessons were over, we went to Uncle Rich & Aunt Claudia's house for their annual pre-trick-or-treating fete with the classic donut on a string game.  The girls were hilarious (as always) trying to gnab a bite of their donuts without using their hands.  We finally told Rose she could just grab it to eat it but she tried and tried for a long time and laughed and laughed doing it!

And finally, trick-or-treating was awesome this year.  The girls lasted a long time, filled their buckets all the way to the top, and didn't complain a bit, even when Rose tripped and dumped her entire bucket full of candy onto the sidewalk and in some bushes. 

It was another fantastic Halloween and we are already looking forward to next year!

September Things

Paul gets on my case when I don't post on here.  And yep, it's become something I do way too infrequently once again.  It's been on my list to post for at least a month now, so I had better get to it with what I have.  

Clara signed up for soccer this fall.  She had great coaches and nice teammates and it was a really fun league.  They started off the season with a parade down the main street in downtown Pleasanton.  Each team is assigned a mascot and Clara's team were the T-Birds.  So they dressed up in Pink Ladies jackets (one of the other mom's took care of getting all the costumes and stuff because she was the only one who had done the league before with an older child and knew that everybody dresses up). 

Clara really enjoyed being in the parade but wasn't a bit starstruck by it.  She played the whole thing super cool and waved with both hands, acknowledging the crowd on both sides of the street, like an old pro.

At her first (and as it would turn out, only) soccer game, she had a great time chasing after the ball.  She's a really fast runner and could get ahead of it, but had a hard time remembering to turn back around and actually go kick the ball!  She had fun though.

Paul was gone on a trip one weekend in late August, so I took the girls down to Watsonville to go apple picking at Gizdich Ranch, our favorite apple orchard.  We met up with our friends from San Jose, the Fischlis and the Schaders, who we have apple picked with in the past.  It was fun catching up and the kids still get along so well.  I wish we could meet up more often but at least we are all doing the Christmas train again together in a couple months.

This was my favorite year of apple picking yet, probably, because Rose was big enough to walk all over and pick apples totally on her own, which made it more enjoyable for both of us!

Our friends, the Millers came to visit in September, which was so, so fun.  Except....Clara broke her arm within about 15 minutes of them getting to our house.  She and their boys had gone out back to jump on the trampoline while the adults were talking inside, when after only a few minutes, Ollie came inside to tell us that Clara got hurt and was crying.  

It was immediately obvious that she had a broken arm.  There wasn't anything poking through the skin, but the middle of her left arm had a definite, weird bend to it and you could just tell.  So Paul and I got Clara into the car and left Rose with the Millers (and told them to just eat leftovers since I hadn't had a chance to get dinner started) and drove Clara to the emergency room (a whole other debacle, although in the end, we really had a good experience with the emergency room staff at Kaiser in San Leandro).  

It's been healing well and she was in a splint, and then a cast for 4 weeks, total, and we go in tomorrow for more x-rays and hopefully a shorter cast instead of the one that goes all the way up over her elbow.  Also, it's her left arm, thank goodness, so it hasn't affected her ability to write or draw, which are her two favorite activities ever.  She chose a black cast and I got her paint sharpies so she could decorate her own cast as much as she wanted before going to school the next day and letting all her friends sign it.  She tells me her next cast will be royal blue.

Other than that first day or two, I don't think she has felt any pain at all and has been such a great patient through this experience, even though it meant putting a stop to soccer, swimming and gymnastics.  

Aside from the initial broken arm incident, we had a great time with the Millers visiting.  We took them to Tilden Park where we rode the miniature train through the redwoods then went to the Little Farm to look at the animals.  But one of my other favorite things is just hanging out and playing games or catching up at night.  Our girls just love the Miller kids so much and they all got along so well.  Hopefully we will make it up to their house soon for another visit!

The other big, big thing that has actually been going on for a long time is that we finally have grass in our backyard!  Paul has worked so hard back there tilling and grading and installing sprinklers and plumbing (me too! I hauled dirt! Not as impressive, I know.) and we finally have sod down and growing in the backyard.  Planter beds are in and hopefully we can get some plants planted in the next month or so and I will post before and after pics.  For now, though, here are some process shots.

I have a few pics from Rose at preschool too.  She is loving it and doing so well there, despite some death glares she gives to girls who get to the dress up shoes before she has a chance to.  I have been volunteering there and in Clara's class and between that and my food blog, and all the other normal things, I feel like I have been insanely busy lately.  Sounds crazy, but it's true.  

Annnnd that's it!  Who knows when I'll get an October post up here!  (Hopefully before the end of October.)